Sam was practically jumping out of her seat. For the last week and a half she and the rest of sg-1 had been negotiating trades with a highly advanced race of aliens known as the Evertyrians. As far as science was concerned they were years ahead of earth, and had two working stargates.

The planet itself reminded her a lot of Tollana, although the people were a lot less arrogant, and becuase they were clearly so far ahead of earth the Evertyrians had agreed to let her and Jonas go and have a look at the main science building.

“Major Carter, Jonas Quinn if you would like to accompany me to the labs.” Fengor, the head scientist, said standing up.

Sam saw Jack nodded slightly as she and Jonas stood up to join him.

“Report in every few hours Major.”

“Yes sir.”

**

Once they'd gotten to the labs it hadn’t taken Jonas long to find the history section which he quickly became enthused in, much to Sam’s dismay.

“Jonas I'm sure this is fascinating, but we’re mainly here to view the scientific background of this planet.”

“I know, I know. Just a few more minutes.” He said, continuing to flick through some holographic history books he‘d found.

“If you wish Major, Jonas could stay here and continue reading while I escort you around the labs.” Fengor suggested.

“I don’t know...”

“I could start researching their relationship to earth..” Jonas said looking up excitedly.

“It is entirely up too you major.”

She thought for a moment. “Okay. We’ll come back down here once we’re finished.”

Jonas nodded, turning back to his hologram.

**

Sam and Fengor walked into a large gray room filled with tons of equipment and experiments.

“And this is my lab...”

“Wow, this is amazing.” Sam said looking around at the various bits and pieces. “It must be incredible to have so much access to everything.”

“Actually this whole level is my sector and I have various technicians running all my experiments. Do you not have a similar system on E-arth?”

“We do, but on a much lower scale.”

There was a soft humming and someone teleported into the room.

“Whoa...” Sam said jumping back slightly.

“Sorry Major I should have warned you about that. This is Gerlon, my assistant.”

“Nice to meet you.” He said shaking her hand.

“The scientists here use teleportation as a form of transport, although it has not become available to the public yet.” Fengor continued.

“So how does this technology work?” Sam asked confused.

“Atoms. According to your report, the scientists of E-arth have only just started trying to manipulate

atoms. We have been doing so for many years.”

“So you teleport by rearranging your atom structure, similar to how the stargate works.”

“Yes.” Fengor walked over to a small console on the side of the door and started pressing buttons.

“What are you doing.” Sam asked as all the doors slid shut.

“If what your report says is true, you are indeed far more advanced than the rest of your species.”

She just stared at him in shock. “I wouldn‘t say that exactly.”

Fengor pulled a small ray gun out of his jacket and pointed it at her. “I need you to take off any metal you are wearing.”

Sam looked at him confused. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

She took off her weapons and dog tags, placing them on the table next to her.

“Good, now over there.” He pointed to a small silver platform.

“Whatever you’re doing, you’re making a mistake.”

He ignored her, pushing another button on the console. There was a slight humming before she was teleported away.

**

Sam found herself in a lab similar to the one she’d just been in. She glanced around the room looking for some sort of weapon but was stopped by Fengor and Gerlon who suddenly appeared in front of her.

“Okay, I want to know what the hell is going on, now.”

“Major please, if you will just calm down we will explain,” Gerlon said nervously.

“Fine.”

“First of all, we have transported you to a secret underground base that is hidden from our government.” Fengor said lowering his gun. “As you know, we are highly advanced technologically but we lack knowledge in the medical area of science. Our people have started showing signs of contracting a highly contagious, fatal disease linked with our methods of experimentation and we are at a loss for an antidote.”

“Isn’t there some way to control it?” Sam asked, trying to take everything in.

Fengor shook his head. “To do so would mean telling the public about our technological advancements and our government doesn‘t believe that is a risk worth taking.”

“But surely if there are so many people at risk...”

“The government believes that if the knowledge we have leaked out, it could fall into the wrong hands and end up destroying our society. Do you not have a similar problem with your knowledge of the stargate on E-arth?”

“To some degree yes, but the situation is entirely different and I still don’t understand what that has to do with me.”

“Our government will not let us work on reversing the disease because they believe if anyone found out about what we’ve been hiding, our society would rebel. Gerlon and I have been secretly working on an antidote but unfortunately our knowledge of medicine is limited. We thought you might be able to aid us in finding a cure.”’

“But you have a whole team of scientists working for you, why can’t they help you?” She asked confused.

“If what we are doing ever got out it before we had finished, there would be a high punishment. It is imperative that we trust whom we work with.”

“How do you know you can trust me?”

“We don’t, but it is a risk we are willing to take to try and save our people.”

“Okay lets just say for a second that I decide to help you. What would it involve?”

“It would mean disappearing from our government for a short time while we worked on finding a cure. It would give you the opportunity to learn all you could about our technology.”

“What about my team?”

“Unfortunately if you agree to this, you can have no further contact with them.”

She looked at Fengor suspiciously. “Why not?”

“Any radio interference would be picked up by our government and all teleportation is monitored. We took a great risk just by bringing you here.”

“If I don’t go back they’re going to come looking for me.”

“I could go back and inform them of our plan.” Gerlon said stepping forward.

“That’s not enough. They’d need some sort of proof, something to know you were on the level. Do you have some sort of recording device I could use?”

Fengor nodded his head. “Does this mean you will help us?”

“Do i have a choice...”

**********************************************************************************

Jack and Teal’c were waiting outside the Evertyrians meeting room when Gerlon walked up to them.

“Colonel Oneill I must speak with you immediately.” He glanced around the room nervously.

“Sure Golom, what’s up.”

He ignored the slip of his name and was about to continue when he was interrupted by one of the lab techs.

“Sorry to interrupt Sir but there’s been a fire in lab 3 sector 2, where Major Carter and Jonas Quinn were working.”

“Are they okay?” Jack asked concerned.

“We managed to find Jonas who was working on one of the other levels, but Major carter still hasn’t been located yet. Our commander thought it would be best if you helped with the search.”

Jack nodded, he and Teal’c following after the tech, while Gerlon was left behind.

**********************************************************************************

Gerlon arrived at back at the lab sometime around midnight, not that you could tell that far underground

anyway.

“Where is Major Carter?” Gerlon asked as Fengor came round the corner.

“She is resting. Where have you been, it‘s past midnight.” Fengor said angrily.

“Has she agreed to help us?”

He nodded. “She has, now where have you been?”

“There was an accident.”

Fengor noticed the change in his assistant’s voice and was immediately alarmed. “What happened?”

“Our whole level was destroyed in a fire. The government thinks that both you and Major Carter are dead.”

“This is good news.”

Gerlon looked at him confused. “I do not understand.”

“Now we will be able to work here without anyone becoming suspicious.”

“Do you really think Major Carter will be able to help us.”

“I believe she will.”

********************************************************************************

After working for a week on the disease it finally looked like Sam was getting somewhere.

“Fengor I think I may have something.”

He looked at her in amazement. “A cure?”

“Possibly. So far we’ve worked out that the sickness your people have is from the radiation your experiments emit, right?”

Fengor nodded his head. “Correct.”

“Well i think the radiation is reacting with a gene that your people carry causing it to mutate and turn into a bacterium. If the infection isn’t treated it can prove fatal to your race. Now, the mutated gene is not contagious. It cant spread from person to person, so if everyone coming into contact with this radiation is given a vaccine it should have a success rate of %100.”

“So all we need to do is come up with a vaccine.”

“Actually that shouldn’t be too hard. A simple dose of antibiotics should do the trick.”

“Then we must get started right away. How long will they take to make.”

“A few more days at the most.”

“This is excellent news.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how are you going to administer this to the public without the government finding out?”

“Gerlon and I have been discussing that for some time now and we believe it would be best if we were honest with our superiors.”

“You’re going to tell them the truth, is that wise?”

“We will not mention your involvement of course, but we think it would be for the best. The only reason the risk was so high at the beginning of this project was because our chances of succeeding were low. Now that we are so close to finding a cure we believe the governments opinion will easily be swayed.”

“Are they really that compliant?”

“Our government only wants what is best for its people. There will be punishment for going behind their backs but because of it‘s success rate, it will be minimal.”

Sam nodded, understanding what he meant. After all, how many times had Sg-1 broken the rules for the good of Earth and been rewarded rather than punished, although if they’d failed she imagined the outcome would have been quite different.

“I imagine you will be glad to be going home soon....”

“Actually i’ve been meaning to ask, if your government think that I've already gone back to earth, how am I going to activate the stargate without them noticing.”

“We will use the stargate you traveled through when you first came to our planet.”

“Are you sure it won’t be monitored?” She asked concerned.

Fengor shook his head. “You are the first to use it in a very long time, most use the one in the city.”

**********************************************************************************

Four days later Sam found herself glad to be on her way back to the stargate. Even though she’d had an incredible time learning about the Evertyrians technology, it would be good to get home.

As she got closer to the gate, she noticed a small green object lying its base. It looked like... It was a reef, a memorial reef....with her name on it.

“Oh , fuck...”

“Is there a problem Sam?”

She picked up the object and glared at him. “They think I'm dead.”

Fengor shook his head. “No, we told them of our plan.”

“Actually that’s not entirely true.” Gerlon said stepping forward.

“What!?” Fengor spun around to face him. “The plan was to tell them.”

“Well I was about to when we were informed of the fire. Then your Colonel insisted on joining in on the search and he found your weapons and dog tags. Rather than risk being exposed I assumed it would be for the best if they...”

“If they believed I was dead.” Sam said angrily. “How could you do this? I trusted you.”

“I know and I'm sorry...” He said apologetically. “...but this was done for your own safety, if anyone knew what we were doing....”

“Okay, okay I get the point.”

“I truly am sorry.”

Sam sighed, she was going to have a hell of a time explaining this when she got back. If she ever got back. Chances are if they thought she was dead, they wouldn’t even open the iris for her.

“We thank you for your help Major. You have undoubtedly saved our people a lot of grief.”

She nodded, turning around to dial the stargate. “Hopefully when you get this problem sorted out with your government I'll see you again sometime.”

Fengor and Gerlon both nodded in agreement and watched as she stepped through the open wormhole. The whole time she was mentally trying to work out how long she’d been considered ‘dead’ for.

To be continued...